AlgaeTex sports shoe at Techtextil 2026: From algae to textile

At Techtextil and Texprocess 2026 ITA Aachen presented solutions to specific contemporary challenges.

Algae have immense potential as a bio-based raw material to replace petroleum in synthetic textiles: they grow rapidly and can absorb carbon dioxide more efficiently than other bio-based raw materials derived from land plants. Furthermore, their cultivation requires less land – including land unsuitable for other crops – and avoids the use of pesticides. The use of algae as a renewable resource for the production of biopolymers and textiles circumvents the challenges of competing with low fuel prices by creating higher-value applications. In this way, the German textile industry can act as a catalyst for the shift away from fossil fuels towards a bioeconomy in which algae represent an important source of biomass.

First ALGAETEX sports shoe prototype by Adidas

The AlgaeTex project demonstrates that the production of thermoplastic biopolymers from algae for textile applications is technically feasible. These novel biopolymers are melt-spun and processed into high-quality textiles that are of significance to the sporting goods industry, such as knitted shoe uppers or T-shirts.

Currently, the scientists of the ALGAETEX project have extracted about 200g of biopolymers from algae as part of the BIOTEXFUTURE research. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a significant yield for lab-scale experiments, with the goal of two to three kilograms by the end of the project cycle. The ingredients of the algae polymers are specific strains of algae, LED light, specific gases, and nutrients. The algae are cultivated in photobioreactors. The algae polymers are very robust and comparable to petroleum-based polyamides. Currently, the polymer can be processed into a textile surface with 60 percent algae content, but in the future, there is also the potential to increase this content to 100 percent.